Splendours & Miseries – Just Stunningly Beautiful

Splendours & Miseries, Images of Prostitution in France, 1850 -1910 is one of the most beautiful books that will be published this year. It is actually an art catalogue for an exhibition that will take place in both France and Netherlands between September 2015 and June 2016 at the Musee d’Orsay and then at the Van Gogh Museum.

As Guy Cogeval states that “It cannot be mere chance that the theme of prostitution should be an ever-present feature of the milestone works of the history of art.” What we must also take note of is that prostitution is a constant theme throughout the art and literature of nineteenth century Europe especially. We also see the relationship with the artist and the subject and have to ask what was this obsession with prostitution that seems to be a constant.

With ten chapters in this catalogue we are given some clear explanations of this exhibition that has been brought together from collections around the world. With some wonderful art and drawings illustrating the subject throughout the book. The vivid colours of the pictures that give rise to the artists fantasies and what allegories can be garnered from vice.

With pictures such as Olympia by Édouard Manet or Degas’s The Absinthe Drinker, from Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Edvard Munch’s various forays into brothels and the bold figures and caricature portraits of Georges Rouault, Kees Van Dongen, and Pablo Picasso, this catalogue come book shows the shadowy domain of prostitution played a central role in the development of modern painting.

Across the book’s chapters, which roam the streets of Paris and head into its maisons closes and boudoirs, where courtesans, more often than not, actresses, singers, or dancers, were looked after by rich protectors. If you have seen the French series Maison Close, this would give the reader a clearer picture of the nineteenth century attitude towards vice in the main, Paris. This catalogue also demonstrates how the works of art are so intrinsically connected to the literary works of the era, all from the perspective of the French writer.

This really is a beautiful catalogue with some stunning works within its pages and the attempt to answer the question asked by Charles Baudelaire, What is art? Prostitution. The pages of this book really do open up art history and its meaning in these painting to those of us who have not had a formal artistic training. It is able to make you look at pictures differently and ask what did the artist see, and statement is he making.

A beautiful book that will be read and reread often, that should be enjoyed by the many, not the few. ( )